A second collapse meant Shelford lost 48-19 to leaders Tonbridge Juddians in National League Three, London and South East.

Shelford’s habit of conceding early tries seems to be have been put behind them, and Tuli Paela gave them the lead after just a few minutes.

Juddians responded with a try from a driving lineout before Josh Simmons’ breakaway score opened the Peacocks’ lead to 14-5.

The visitors’ pack began to dominate and scored two unanswered tries, before Shelford’s Tom Ransom was hospitalised with a serious knee injury.

The Peacocks ended the half strongly and were camped in the opposition 22 but they were unable to add to their tally making it 14-7 at the break.

However, despite their first-half endeavour, Shelford conceded 34 points in the second half.

Three individual errors – a charged down kick, a missed kick to touch and a dropped high ball – contributed to the converted tries.

Tonbridge’s fly-half Frank Reynolds then gave a master class of kicking out of hand and pinned Shelford into their 22 and two late tries followed before Charlie Baker pulled one back for flagging Shelford.

More worrying, however, is that injuries mean that they are currently without a fit front-row for next weekend’s game at Westcliff.